It may come as a surprise that gout is the most common cause of inflammatory arthritis among adults in the United States.1It’s also very painful, but gout can be a management disease – meaning there are several things people with gout can do to reduce flares, or eliminate flares all together.
Continue readingArthritis Foundation Launches Wipe Out Gout – Awareness Campaign
A diet that’s best known for promoting heart health may also significantly reduce blood levels of uric acid – a key factor in the development of gout, according to a new study published online recently inArthritis & Rheumatology. TheDASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, which emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, was developed nearly 20 years ago by a government-funded research collaborative to reduce high blood pressure. In the new study, researchers found that in some cases, DASH may also lower uric acid levels almost as well as medications do.
Continue readingHeart-healthy DASH Diet May Also Help Prevent Gout
At times, life can be difficult for those living withgout, but it can be just as hard on spouses. When you live in close quarters with a significant other, you undoubtedly feel the pain they deal with on a daily basis. Mira knows this firsthand.
Early on in their marriage, Mira’s husband returned from a business trip with a painful toe and they couldn’t figure out the cause. “For someone who was athletic and never had any health problems, it was inexplicable,” says Mira. “That first attack lasted about a week, and we were young, so he didn’t go see a doctor.”
Continue reading“Honey, I Have Gout”: A Spouse Reflects on Her Worries
你知道痛风意识日是在5月22日吗?In support of Gout Awareness Day today, we’velaunched a new tool帮助那些患有这种疾病的人。Of the nearly 8.3 million adults living withgout, more than half experience multiple gout attacks each year. But having fewer or no gout attacks is possible. The Arthritis Foundation’s Let’s Speak Gout patient tool is now available to empower you to better manage your disease.
Continue readingLet’s Speak Gout: Addressing A Treatable, Yet Often Untreated Condition
“Gout is so 18th century. It’s like, why don’t I get scarlet fever and syphilis as well, while I’m about it?” – Columnist and restaurant critic Giles Coren, The Times, September 13, 2014
That’s just one of hundreds of gout jokes, cartoons and snide jabs that have been spied in the media in the last few years — and that doesn’t take into account a rich tradition of gout lampoonery dating back at least to the 18th century (Google “James Gillray”). Then or now, it’s hard to imagine another disease that gets so little respect. And that’s a problem, according to New Zealand researchers. They say the press perpetuates myths aboutgoutthat downplay its seriousness and prevent sufferers from getting treatment.
Continue readingGout Is No Joke: Misinformation & Shaming May Prevent People from Getting Appropriate Care
Americans of Asian and African descent have much higher risk than white and Hispanic Americans of developing rare but severe, sometimes life-threatening skin reactions to thegoutdrug allopurinol (Zyloprim), according to a new study published recently inSeminars in Arthritis & Rheumatism.
这两种皮肤反应被称为史蒂文斯-约翰逊综合征(SJS)和中毒性表皮坏死溶解症(TEN)，会引起类似流感的症状、广泛的皮疹和上层皮肤的大部分(包括粘液膜)起水泡和脱落。它们也会损害其他主要器官。SJS and TENS, which are believed to be different manifestations of the same disorder, are usually caused by a reaction to a drug (including acetaminophen [Tylenol] and certain antibiotics).
Continue readingSevere Skin Reactions to Gout Drug Allopurinol Linked to Race
As a former football player and wrestler who’d had three knee operations, Scott thought he knew pain. Then he had his first gout attack.
While the pain was new to him, Scott was familiar with gout because his dad had been living with it for 20 years.Gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis, develops in some people who have high levels of uric acid in the blood. The acid can form needle-like crystals in a joint and cause sudden, severe episodes of pain, , (tenderness and redness are not severe – focus on pain, warmth and swelling), warmth and swelling in the joints. For many people, including Scott, the first symptom of gout is excruciating pain and swelling in the big toe. Gout may also appear in another lower-body joint, such as the ankle or knee.
“Basically I described what happened, the doctor looked at my foot, told me I had gout and prescribed some pain medicine,” Scott says. “The pain medicine didn’t do much though. I stopped taking it after a few days and tried to manage around the pain.”
Continue readingFormer Football Player Tackles Gout
Gout is one of the oldest known human diseases – dating back to 2600 BC – but a new study shows it’s a disease that patients still don’t understand very well. The study, published online in January 2016 inArthritis Care & Research,found that just 14% of patients with this painful type of inflammatory arthritis actually knew what their uric acid level should be.
“It is an old disease for which there are really effective treatments and despite that, understanding of treatment goals is suboptimal. It is somewhat surprising,” said study author Ted Mikuls, MD, the Umbach Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Ohama. “Patients have pretty good knowledge of what causesgoutand what drugs are used for, so the lack of knowledge about a treatment goal stood out.”
Continue readingGet Better Control of Your Gout
我们大多数人都知道糖如何影响我们的腰围。过多的甜食会导致肥胖，以及糖尿病和心脏病等疾病。Overdoing it on one type of sugar in particular—the high fructose corn syrup found in sodas and processed foods—can also set off painfulgout. Considering that the average American eats 22 to 30 teaspoons of sugar daily, gout is yet another health risk worth noting.
Fructose is a natural sugar found in fruit and honey. High fructose corn syrup is a man-made sweetener produced from corn. It’s composed of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Why is this type of sugar harder on your joints than other forms, like glucose? “Fructose is metabolized differently from glucose,” explains Peter Simkin, MD, emeritus professor of medicine in the University of Washington School of Medicine division of Rheumatology.
As the body breaks down fructose, chemical compounds called purines are released. The breakdown of purines produces uric acid—the substance that forms painful crystals in the joints and causes gout. Within minutes after you drink high fructose corn syrup-sweetened soda, your uric acid levels rise.Continue readingFructose and Gout: What’s the Link?
Nearly two-thirds of Americans start their day with a cup or more of coffee. Besides its wake-up java jolt effect, coffee could be good for your health. Studies have linked regular coffee consumption with a lower risk for heart disease, some types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes, among other conditions.
你早上喝的咖啡也能帮助预防痛风发作吗?虽然一些证据表明，这种流行的饮料可能有助于避免关节疼痛，但如果你已经有痛风，它所含的咖啡因实际上可能会导致更多的疼痛。
A 2007 study investigated the potential link between coffee intake and gout risk among nearly 46,000 men. The authors found that men who drank four to five cups of coffee a day had a 40 percent lower relative risk of gout compared to men who weren’t coffee drinkers. Decaf coffee also modestly lowered gout risk, but tea didn’t have any effect, suggesting that something other than caffeine is responsible for the effect on gout.
Continue readingDoes Coffee Help or Hurt Gout?